Engaged employees are those that have an emotional commitment towards their organization and organizational goals. In other words, engaged employees are a big asset to the organization they work for because they care about their work and their organization to a great deal. HR consultants tell that companies with high employee engagement have a high productivity and see better financial success. So how can organizations identify if their employees are engaged or not? Here are a few tips to identify the unengaged employees in your organization and protect your business from falling apart.

Absence of Initiative: According to the human resources consultancy experts, one of the most visible characteristics of an unengaged employee is the absence of initiative. One way to track the unengaged employees is looking out for employees who just do the minimum work they need to do to stick to the job and don’t put any further efforts to add any value to the organization. To motivate such an employee an honest and confidential discussion is required to understand what is obstructing the employee to take initiative and what are his/her interests and then take necessary steps to blend the employee’s interests with the organizational requirements.

Pessimistic attitude: Unengaged employees have a pessimistic attitude and often find fault about almost everything around them. HR consultants say these are the employees that are seen to be complaining and frustrated most of the times. Even in the case of such an employee, the manager or HR professional needs to talk to the employee and identify the source of frustration and take corrective measures to eliminate frustration.

Lack of responsibility: Another significant characteristic of an unengaged employee is that he/she is not willing to take responsibility for his/her actions and when something goes wrong, the employee shuns from accepting the accountability. Instead, the employee in such a situation gives lame excuses and tries to make others responsible for it. The human resources consultancy professionals suggest that such employees should be made understood of the negative impact their behavior creates in the organization and given training to overcome such behavior.

Reserved behavior: The reserved and unapproachable behavior is also an indicator to identify an unengaged employee. People who are actively participating and communicative are good to be considered as engaged. But, when they are uncommunicative and detached they need to be encouraged to become an active team member by rekindling the lost emotional connection with the help of friendly events like team lunches, off-site vacations etc.

Lack of results: Per the human resources consultancy professionals, the unengaged employees’ behavior can be attributed to the absence of a stake in the business outcomes. They feel strongly that their work doesn’t have any impact on the business outcome and even if it has, they are not appropriately recognized for their efforts. To address this problem, it is necessary for the organization’s management to identify such employees and inform them management objectives and growth strategies. They should be made understood that their services are invaluable and are indispensable in the path of reaching the organizational goals.

In no instance can organizations take a chance by ignoring and not identifying the unengaged employees that are ruining the whole organization’s efforts with their attitude and work. Companies can hire HR consulting firms to help them identify the warning signals given by the unengaged and unproductive employees and take corrective measures to reengage such unengaged employees.